My study was shifted in to my workshop to make room for the newest addition to our family. This meant that some stuff from the workshop needed to be shifted to under the house – and it is sooooo annoying getting things from under the house!
We have a solution! But before we go there, let me tell you a tale of a foolish man. Many years ago when we were building the workshop I had the option to replace the failing retaining wall – which was holding up our back fence and half my neighbours yard – with a new one. Half of the job which involved removing the wall would’ve taken a few minutes with a bobcat. But at the time I didn’t have the foresight to see this so the failing retaining wall remained.
Missed opportunity. The retaining wall is below the right side fence. Pic taken few years ago.
Fast-forward a few years to today, the retaining wall is in a desperate state and something must be done!
Retaining wall and fence is falling over. The brick wall is floating (ie. not retaining)
I figured I could kill two bird with one stone (who am I kidding? I throw like a girl!) and replace the retaining wall plus build a shed behind the workshop for storing all my stuff. Brilliant!
So I got to work removing the old retaining wall and all the dirt. I ordered a skip bin for all the rubbish. At first I thought it may be a waste of money, but it came in very handy. There was a lot of rubbish.
-
- Digging digging…
-
- Remove the dirt by hand was a pain.
-
- I forgot to take pictures of when I was dismantling the existing retaining wall, dang.
-
- Cleaned up. Ready to dig post holes.
-
- It was a big of a downer to discover that the brick wall below the fence didn’t go all the way to the ground. It went only half way. That explains why the removed retaining wall was falling.
-
- Using the heavy rod to square off the edges so I can put the new retaining wall as close to the fence as possible.
-
- Digging post holes. Hired a one-man auger from Kennards. This made my job so much easier!
-
- Post holes needed to be a minimum of 600mm deep. I didn’t want to be too shallow so I ended up going deeper than 600 in a few, which just meant I had to fill it in with more dirt or concrete.
-
- Quite the deep.
-
- String line is put up once the two end post holes are dug so mark out the rest of the holes.
-
- For a total of ~6.5m I marked 7 places where the posts would go. It ended up being about a metre between posts, which is plenty solid to hold up the fence.
-
- Screwdrivers for markers where the post holes should be.
-
- The auger didn’t allow me to get too close to the fence when drilling, so the post holes aren’t as close as I would like. But that didn’t stop be from concreting in the posts closer to the back of the holes.
I had the cheaper option of putting in something similar to the previous retaining wall, or I could use H section steel posts and slide in sleepers between them. Doing it with the H section steel posts means I would end up with a flat retaining wall. Having a wall that had posts sticking out every metre or so would not have been easy to work around when putting things inside the shed. So I opted to spend some extra money to make it look nice and get more space.
These sleepers are too thin for the post. The ones I ended up using still didn’t fit perfectly, there was a ~1cm gap which I filled from behind so it looked flush when completed.
5 ‘H’ sections were used and 2 ‘C’ sections for the ends.
Concreting in the posts and getting them all aligned properly was a pain. If I had to do it again I would build a better jig to keep the posts in place when I poured the concrete around it.
-
- Posts were placed in their respective holes.
-
- Concreting has begun. Next time I would use a better jig to keep the posts in their place while concreting. This part was a pain doing it on my own.
-
- Cut the sleeper to size and testing it out.
-
- Letting the concrete dry overnight.
-
- The one on the right was done the day before, the one on the left is fresh.
Once the concrete set I was ready to start sliding in the sleepers. This part was easy to do and made the most impact on the look. I really enjoyed doing this part.
-
- 4 sleepers height was perfect. Each sleeper was cut from a 2.4m length piece. So I got two lengths out of each one and was left over with a small off-cut.
-
- I hadn’t decided what I was going to do about this gap yet. The auger didn’t allow me to go all the way.
-
- Ah ha! Those off-cuts came in handy.
-
- Small planter box 🙂
-
- Coming together nicely. The sleepers had a small gap behind them so I would need to pack them. To avoid the bottom sleeper and top from moving I also screwed those ones to the post after drilling a small hole in the post for the screw.
-
- Before back filling the new retaining wall I lined it with those thick, black, plastic irrigation sheets so avoid water seeping through. In hindsight I should have also put some ag-pipe along the length at the bottom to drain the water. When there is very heady and sustained rains (not very often) I sometimes get some seepage coming through. But it’s a shed, not a bedroom. So no big deal.
-
- Looks good and I reclaimed quite a lot of space!
-
- The dirt gaps between the new retaining wall and the existing concrete were cleaned out and dug down a little deeper in preparation for filling with concrete. I don’t want thing place getting muddy when wet so there will be no exposed dirt when I finish.
-
- Preparing for concrete. You can also see on the left I closed off the side of the garage with some off-cuts.
-
- Still plenty more work to be done.
-
- Back filling.
-
- Concreting of the small section near the retaining wall is complete. Just enough concrete!
Finally! Some help arrives.
I had some paving stones left over from when we did the paving a few years back. I decided to use these to complete the paving gaps left behind when removing the old retaining wall.
-
- Sand substrate for the paving stones.
-
- I only had a small grinding disk which cut _just_ deep enough.
-
- Dusty
-
- Snug fit. It took a while to do this one because it had to cater for the post that was in the way. As I was fitting it a piece broke off the edge. I didn’t bother cutting a new one and just filled in this gap with cement. You can hardly see it now.
-
- New paving complete. It looks even better now after the older pavers were cleaned. The colours matched.
-
- Wooden block between pavers and concrete was just part of the form works for the concrete. That comes out later.
Now the frame for the roof was made up and put in place. The roof helps to support the fence and prevent it from falling any further. The foam roll was used to close the gaps between the lapped fence and the roof frame. This will then be used to hold the silicon that will be used to seal the roofing sheets when put in place.
-
- Foam roll used between lapped fence and roof structure of shed.
-
- The roof is slightly tilted back to assist in drainage.
-
- Flush with the wall of the workshop.
The door to the shed was probably the biggest decision here. I could have bought a galvanised one from Bunnings and cut it to size, but that would mean I would have to hinge it on the fence side. Even though opening it would be better (it opens towards the fence and out of the way) the amount of room I would have to move equipment in and out would be limited.
Instead, I opted to build the door myself in a weird shape so that I could get maximum access to the shed when the door is fully opened.
Opening on the workshop wall means I need to open it all the way to get cumbersome equipment in and out, but it is worth it considering how much more access space I get.
In hindsight, I should have built and welded the frame from steel. When it rains it expands and is a little harder to close the door.
-
- The frame laid out on the floor before screwing together.
-
- Bracing.
-
- Securing the bracing.
-
- Some more bracing.
-
- Even more securing of the bracing. This was the first wooden door I have built so I wanted to be sure it was strong and sturdy.
-
- Kinda level… needs more work.
-
- Preparing to hinge it to the workshop. Industrial grade hinges used here. 3 of them.
-
- Opens fully.
-
- Decided to make some shelves for the inside of the door, for storing gardening stuff.
-
- Some spare fence paneling used for the shelves.
-
- Preparing the face of the door. I decided I wanted it to match the fence so I lapped the face with fence paneling. I also put additional paneling along the back wall of the shed to cover the old fence which has gaps and is falling apart.
-
- Door looks taller than it is.
-
- The latch used here was later replaced with a stainless steel handle. I also installed a dead lock.
-
- Three hinges holding up this thing. It is very solid.
-
- I was later told by my friend that the bracing should go diagonally from the top down to the point where the bottom hinge is. This gives best strength. Ah well, next time.
-
- From the inside.
A friend helped me install the roofing. This was drilled in to place and then (I am ashamed to admit) I used about 7 tubes of silicon to seal the roof. It was mostly used for the huge gaps between the lapped fence and the roofing sheets.
A gutter was also installed at the back of the shed for drainage out the side of the workshop.
-
- Colourbond sheets that match the roof of the workshop.
-
- Putting the sheets in place.
-
- This is before the silicon was smoothed out.
-
- Silicon smoothed out. Looks better.
-
- Silicon! Best stuff ever!
A cap was placed on top of the retaining wall so it can be used as a shelf.
-
- Preparing the cap to fit the posts.
-
- In place.
-
- A tapered piece of wood was used to close a gap. Shelf is complete and looks good.
In hindsight I would use dried/hard wood. The soft wood here has warped and some parts are crooked. But it serves its purpose so I won’t bother changing it.
With the roof in place, the shed is now ready for lighting. I tapped in to the existing power point and installed a switch along with 3 double-baton fluorescent lights.
-
- I need to tap in to this power.
-
- Tapping in to the existing power point. Lucky I had the electrician install this back here when we were building the workshop. Pulling power through would’ve been frustrating.
-
- I couldn’t get it past a baton in the wall so had to poke a hole 🙁 This was later plugged up with silicon.
-
- Wiring channel.
-
- First light installed.
-
- Another mistake when drilling. This hole in the
Done! Once completed I installed a bunch of hooks and shelves (bolted to the workshop wall) and organised all my gardening equipment and some other toys and larger/cumbersome things. This shed has really helped me organise my stuff and store things properly.
Finished door with the new handle and lock.
Shelves already being used and almost full!
Couldn’t ask for a better shed! It is exactly what I needed. Bonus: My fence won’t fall down!
Thanks for reading. If you liked this post, please leave a comment, share, or follow me! 🙂
October 29, 2016 at 12:42 am
Thank you for detailing how you made a shed including the kind of wood you used, what kinds of posts you installed, and, how you made a roof. Excellent tips all around.